The old days.

[jukel123 6,570]

Late seventies I received a big bonus and a tax rebate in the same week, so me and the Mrs decided to take the kids to Blackpool for a long weekend. They each wanted to take a friend so their mates were sent home to ask permission. They both came back with parental approval so off we went. Packing was done in ten minutes. A couple of  changes of underwear for us and the kids including some gear for one of the lad's friends  who was a snotty nosed poor bugger and had arrived with nothing other than the clothes he was wearing. Everything fitted into an old army rucksack and off we went.

The train journey was a good laugh, I let the kids run wild, climbing into the luggage racks and pulling faces at every stop to discourage other passengers from entering our carriage.

When we got to Blackpool we quickly found a boarding house and set-off to the attractions. In the two days we were there we did the whole thing....... ate Blackpool rock, whelks, crab etc, candy floss, donkeys on the beach, went to the funfair and spent a fortune feeding one armed bandits. We went to a small theatre, the zoo and various other small shows.

We went past a wrestling attraction and a wrestler stood outside challenging passers by. We stood to watch and the wrestler said "I' ll give ten quid to anybody who can last two rounds with me. Boxing or wrestling, you choose." A little fella piped up and said "I'll give it a go" and in he went. I'd done a bit of boxing in a residential home  when I was a kid and also boxed for my youth club. I kept looking at this bloke. He was well over fifty, five stone overweight and had nicotine fingers. I kept thinking what's the catch? The kids were all egging me on to give it a go, but I wasn't convinced. I said to the bloke" is it definitely you I'm going to be boxing and all I have to do is last two rounds for a tenner?" He assured me there was no catch. I felt a bit wary of hitting the guy to be honest he looked so knackered, I was still in my twenties and pretty fit so I thought I can easily keep him  off me with a jab and collect my money.So I agreed and in we went.

When I got in I asked for some gloves and was told "oh you won't be needing those , we've got somebody to fight today".  Me and the Mrs looked at each other and burst out laughing. We'd been had!   It had all been a ruse to tempt us in. However we sat down to watch the performance. The little fella who had challenged the wrestler was up first. He was obviously part of the staff  and the show was pretty  amateurish, but we enjoyed it nevertheless. The highlight were the female wrestlers, both fat as f**k, who proceeded to pull each others leotards around their arses and fannies, to give us a good show. The boys were aghast so I said "they are men boys" trying to look straightfaced. Anyway one of the girls heard me and said "did you call me a f****n man?" I didn't know where to look so I said sheepishly "no". My Mrs laughed until her sides ached and the boys were hysterically giggling too. 

We got back to the boarding house and we went to bed. The boys had their own room with bunk beds. Me and the Mrs had our own room and were soon doing what twenty odd year old couples do and fell asleep.

The next morning we went down for breakfast and the owner had real attitude. "What do you want for breakfast? he snarled.  He came back and slammed the tea pot on the table. I asked him what his aggression was all about. He went apeshit and said the kids had been jumping from the top bunks onto the floor and that  their room was just above the bar. He said the whole hotel was f****n shaking. He had been into their bedrooms several times but they were too high to settle down. I asked him why he didn't come and tell me and he said he had. Turned out he had knocked on the wrong door and read the riot act to a couple who were completely confused. Anyway he calmed down and went off to apologise to the couple he had bollocked.

The next day was pretty much the same as the one before except we went to the public swimming baths where they had a chute. One of the kids had gotten frightened and  blocked the chute  halfway down,refusing to go down it. Poor lad was frightened he would end up in the sewer.lol

When evening came we went back to the hotel  and watched Benny Hill on the telly in the bar and had lemonade and crisps. The whole bar, young and old, were grinning at the show. Too bad the culture police have cancelled Benny Hill.

Anyway innocent  pleasures eh? What ever happened to the simple life?

Edited October 12, 2022 by jukel123

[chartpolski 20,409]

Benny Hill on in 20 minutes, (20:20), on That's TV (UK) channel 65 Freeview, if you fancy a bit of nostalgia

Cheers.

[Qbgrey 3,983]

 Benny hill and dick emery class. 

[TOMO 24,876]

Nice story that jukel

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

3 minutes ago, Qbgrey said:

 dick emery. 

 

Who the Fukk was that other bloke, big around the same time ~ American guy. For some damn reason I was always mixing them up. Crazy, because they were chalk and cheese.

 There. Just strained like fukk to think of his name. See him plain as day. And what to I come up with? " Was it Dick Emery ....? " FFS!

 

 

[jukel123 6,570]

10 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

Benny Hill on in 20 minutes, (20:20), on That's TV (UK) channel 65 Freeview, if you fancy a bit of nostalgia

Cheers.

I 've just been watching Benny Hill on Youtube, that's what reminded me of our Blackpool weekend. Good entertainment.

 

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

Dickie Henderson !!!

[Lenmcharristar 9,180]

Reminds me of when mum took us to butlins as kids, over in ayre, boat journey the lot, massive adventure as it was our 1st holiday away

[tatsblisters 7,945]

Family holidays for us in the early 70s was the Beachome caravan site at cleethorpes with cousin's and the lot decending on the place always found plenty to do. 

[mackem 23,782]

I remember the feeling of adventure going to Blackpool as a kid, donkeys, the lights, and the tower, happy carefree times

[lurcherman 887 12,679]

I remember going to clacton

[mushroom 12,388]

Blackpool hundreds of times for the day run all through my childhood. Mid 80’’s we used to holiday for a week each year at the Regency Caravan park in Morecambe. Frontier Land Theme park day pass, Crabbing up near Heysham power station and mind a mate and me once fed a minor bird bubble gum and got screamed at  Oh and we nearly got swept off the steps at high tide during a storm 

[foxdropper 17,092]

We used to go to  West Bay most years ,camping .Back then it was a quiet seaside hamlet with few tourists .I’d be fishing almost most days ,off the jetty for mackerel .Catch one use it for bait and so on .

I remember an old boy hooking a monster bass that he had to walk up the beach to land .

Mum and dad had a large family tent whilst myself and brother had an igloo ,blow up thing that had a slow puncture .By morning it was flat on our faces which only added to the experience .
Pre Internet us kids didn’t need no more than what we could make or buy with pocket money and that was the same for everyone I guess .

The owner of the campsite had working Russell’s ,hard bitten tykes that captivated me at the age of 10-12 .Used to question him on what they did but even back then he was cagey

Breakfast on the beach using drift wood ,the smell of it cooking whilst me and bro were rockpooling .

We caught Blennies with hand lines using bits of limpets on size 14 hooks .

Went back there last year and despite the flu thing it was packed ,sadly with the wrong sort ,and the bars and pubs rammed and looking tatty .

We moved on to Lyme Regis which was worse

 

 

[WILF 44,298]

19 minutes ago, foxdropper said:

We used to go to  West Bay most years ,camping .Back then it was a quiet seaside hamlet with few tourists .I’d be fishing almost most days ,off the jetty for mackerel .Catch one use it for bait and so on .

I remember an old boy hooking a monster bass that he had to walk up the beach to land .

Mum and dad had a large family tent whilst myself and brother had an igloo ,blow up thing that had a slow puncture .By morning it was flat on our faces which only added to the experience .
Pre Internet us kids didn’t need no more than what we could make or buy with pocket money and that was the same for everyone I guess .

The owner of the campsite had working Russell’s ,hard bitten tykes that captivated me at the age of 10-12 .Used to question him on what they did but even back then he was cagey

Breakfast on the beach using drift wood ,the smell of it cooking whilst me and bro were rockpooling .

We caught Blennies with hand lines using bits of limpets on size 14 hooks .

Went back there last year and despite the flu thing it was packed ,sadly with the wrong sort ,and the bars and pubs rammed and looking tatty .

We moved on to Lyme Regis which was worse

 

 

That’s a shame, went to Lyme Regis as a kid and have very fond memories of the place.

Got my first ever fishing rod there and fished for the first time ever on the river Otter on the way back to where we were staying.

 

[forest of dean redneck 11,190]

Welcome to every Dorset seaside place in the summer they all the same .